County Supervisor Bill Horn is admitting he has a personal pronoun problem, but says it doesn't conflict with the ban on contact with developers during a project application.

Horn has drawn fire for telling a North County Times reporter that he talked to the developer of Merriam Mountains, a proposal for 2,700 or so homes on thousands of acres of rolling hills north of Escondido and west of Interstate 15. Such contact is forbidden during the approval process by a county law that aims to block undue influence by applicants.

The supervisor explained to Union-Tribune reporter Jeff McDonald today that he meant 'I' to apply to his staff, not himself. Staff contact with project applicants is allowed.

“I refer to the county as ‘I’ many times,” he said. “I use ‘I’ a lot, whether I’m talking about my staff, the county or myself. It’s unfortunate that I used ‘I.’ I’ll try to be more accurate in the future.”

Project opponents have called for an investigation into Horn's conduct by District Attorney Bonnie Dumanis. The district attorney’s office declined to comment on the investigation request.

Horn, who is facing re-election in June, denied that he did anything wrong and said he welcomed any investigation. He said he misspoke when he was discussing the project and would not recuse himself from future Merriam Mountains votes.

The project stalled on a 2-2 vote of the board last month, with Supervisor Ron Roberts absent. Roberts asked for a rehearing today, so the project can be heard by the whole board.